Baby & Me Review

The Good

Lots of mini-games. Parenting tips on many of the screens. Pleasant graphics. Lots to do.

The Bad

Will likely only appeal to women. No male avatar option. Hard to keep your characters happy for any length of time.

Looking after a virtual baby can be a lot of work in Baby & Me

Baby & Me is a new simulation game on Facebook from Modern Mom that has you taking care of both a mother and her baby. It’s up to you to make sure that their needs are met and that they are happy and well cared for. The game has quite a bit of content to explore and it’s actually quite easy to get lost when first starting out.

The majority of your time in the game will be spent trying to increase your character’s happiness level. Before you can play with your baby though, you will need to make sure its basic needs are met. You will need to change its diaper, clean it, and feed it. And only after you have met your baby’s basic needs can you play with them. There are numerous mini-games that you can choose from and each of them will increase happiness and earn you experience and coins.

The games are fairly simple and do become repetitive after a while, especially the hidden object games. There are only a couple different scenes and the objects always stay in the same spots. The names of the objects change, however (an ice cream cone can also be listed as gelato, for example). There are also matching games and a few games that require you to click at the right time.

Baby & Me also has a crafting option. You will be making your own diapers, baby food, and even soap. Each item you can craft requires specific items that you will need to purchase with crafting points. You earn crafting points by playing the hidden object games that are accessed from the map. You will be crafting items a lot because, just like a real baby, your virtual infant will be going through a lot of diapers and apparently is a very messy eater.

While Baby & Me offers a lot of content it still feels more like work at times. There is almost too much to do, making it hard to focus on what needs to be done in order to advance. It’s also very hard to keep your characters happy for any length of time. You can keep them happy longer by crafting higher quality items but those items usually require ingredients that are premium content. Also, most of the happiness items for the mother seem to be premium items.

Since Baby & Me is on Facebook, there is definitely a social aspect to it. You can visit your neighbors and help them clean their house while your babies have a play date. You can earn coins, experience, energy bonuses, and happiness points, as well as send and receive crafting items.

Baby & Me is definitely geared towards women and mothers specifically. This is made clear by the fact that there is no option to have a father character in the game. You can choose the gender of your baby, though this has no real bearing on the gameplay.

In the end Baby & Me feels a lot like work. The games are simplistic, you have to keep a constant eye on the happiness meters, and while there is a lot of content a lot of it seems unnecessary. Still, if you are looking for a nice life simulator where you can raise an adorable baby, this may be the game for you.